![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
Ancestors are storytellers. Buddhists consider that people will go to one of six realms after death. The six realms represent six worlds that consist of different mental states which correspond to one’s wholesome and unwholesome karma. Buddhist ancestors have warned why life impelled by ignorance, hatred, and greed leads to undesirable rebirths, such as in the realms of hungry ghosts and hell, and have taught the value of moral conduct through stories and paintings to children and adults. This paper focuses on how Buddhist hell stories can shape moral and interreligious education, cultivating the value of life and interconnectedness for future generations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 For a more detailed background of the Ōjōyōshū and the beliefs of the Pure Land in Japan, see Robert F. Rhodes Genshin’s Ojoyoshu and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2018.
2 Genshin does not mention the Ten Kings in hell in Ōjōyōshū. The story of the Ten Kings has its roots in the two sutras; the Ten Kings (the Sutra of Ten Kings), written in China, and Bussetsu Jizo Bosatsu Hossin Innen juo-kyo 仏説地蔵菩薩発心因縁十王経, written in Japan.
3 An arahant is the highest level practitioner of Theravada Buddhism. An arahant no longer needs to go through samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
4 Yojana is an ancient Indian measure of distance. One yojana is about 10 km or 6 miles.
5 Kalpa refers to an immense measurement of time in ancient India.
6 Jizobosatsu is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in Sanskrit. Ksitigarbha means “earth treasure.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nanako Sakai
Nanako Sakai. Ph.D. (Religion and Religious Education, Fordham University, New York). Adjunct Professor, Iona University. Email: [email protected].